Related Realty Plans Third Team Build Day to Support Affordable Housing Efforts in West Pullman

September 13th, 2018

Related Realty, a full-service real estate brokerage based in Chicago, is preparing for their third Team Build Day with Giveback Homes and Habitat for Humanity. Thanks to a successful fundraiser held earlier in the year, the brokers are able to provide a generous donation to Habitat’s affordable housing efforts in West Pullman in addition to volunteering their time on the construction site.

This will be the third Team Build Day Related Realty has funded through fundraising events and donations from their brokers. They have been supporting affordable housing projects in West Pullman since August of 2016. They returned to West Pullman to help out in 2017 and look forward to continuing the tradition again this September.

Related Realty brokers will come together on September 28th, 2018 to help build a home for a single mother, Tonya, and her five-year-old daughter, Kayli.

Inherently curious and brilliantly adventurous, Tonya Martin has been a happy, faithful Amtrak train attendant for over seven years. Her favorite Amtrak routes to work on are those that head to California and Portland – routes with incomparable views through the Rockies and the Sierras, she adds. On these journeys, Tonya gets long layovers and has time to sightsee and adventure throughout the cities in which they stop. Tonya rarely chooses to work this route, however, and instead travels primarily to Texas, a much less idyllic journey. Why? Because its travel schedule allows her to get home two days earlier to her five-year-old daughter, Kayli. And nothing is more valuable to Tonya than the time she and Kayli spend together. It doesn’t quite matter what they are doing – from practicing the alphabet to visiting family on the weekends, Tonya is happiest of all when she and Kayli are together.

And the more you get to know Tonya, the clearer it becomes that everything she does, she does because she wants her daughter to be happy. It is why she decided to become a homeowner in the first place. For years, Tonya has been frustrated with her and Kayli’s living situation. It doesn’t at all match the quality of the home she wants to provide. It is unaffordable; it is too small; and it does not provide the safe, supportive community she believes her family deserves and requires to thrive.

Tonya is beyond ready to change this situation for herself, fully evidenced by the drive, enthusiasm, and energy she brings to each homeowner university course and required volunteer hour she completes. She is ready to build the space she needs to have family and friends over for dinners and barbecues. She is ready for a home that truly belongs to her and Kayli – that they can customize and design to reflect the bold, creative women they are. She is ready to have a home that is worth the hard-earned money she is investing in it.

"It’s a new chapter for me and Kayli. I think we’re going to be very happy in our new house. And we’ll have a backyard. I never had a backyard and my daughter gets to have one.”

Want to support impactful projects like this? Check out our builds page to donate to an affordable housing project benefiting families in need both here in the U.S. and around the world. And click here to join the movement and become an agent #forsocialgood.